The Army has evacuated homes in WA's north-west which have been cut off by rising floodwaters in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Veronica, which has been downgraded to a low after lingering off the Pilbara coast.

Key points:

Many residents in Boodarie were left sheltering in their homes after being cut off

Damage to houses has been described as minor but the full extent is unknown

DFES has had more than 80 calls for help from Port Hedland, Karratha and beyond

Soldiers and police officers in specialist army trucks have managed to reach the isolated suburb of Boodarie on the outskirts of Port Hedland, rescuing 21 people.

Many residents had been left sheltering in their homes, most of which have become temporary islands in the wake of the former cyclone.

Veronica — a category one system overnight — was downgraded by the Bureau of Meteorology early this morning, with red alert warnings lifted for remaining areas including Karratha.

Premier applauds community effort

Premier Mark McGowan flew to the north-west on Tuesday morning to inspect the damage in Karratha and Port Hedland.

He thanked authorities and the local community for their response.

"This had the capacity to be a tragic cyclone, it had the capacity to be devastating," he said.

"The local community has done a marvellous job and all of the volunteers, all of the State Government workers, all of the industry people, have banded together to ensure that this community was ready and that they are dealing with the aftermath very well."

DFES has deployed extra staff to the region, including a taskforce from its statewide operational response division and an urban search and rescue taskforce.

Horizon Power has also been working with communities across the region to restore power outages.

Main Roads said in a statement there was no evidence of any major road damage at Port Hedland, but there had been heavy flooding across sections of North West Coastal and the Great Northern Highways and other major roads in the Pilbara.